


The Dead Deserve Rest

by Kateis_Cakeis



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dream Smp, Gen, Ghost Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28205250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kateis_Cakeis/pseuds/Kateis_Cakeis
Summary: Wilbur decided enough was enough, he was finally going to be buried.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 85





	The Dead Deserve Rest

New L’Manberg had a terrible secret. It wasn’t the fact that the nation had lost its ideals. Or the public execution… Or the army that dressed like butchers. No, it was what was left from the old L’Manberg… or, well, Manberg. The room he had built. The button room.

He’d been a ghost for a long while now, trying his best to live in peace, but this secret was hard to ignore, and he couldn’t rest knowing… Knowing…

By his own admission, there was no possibility of him remembering the room, but his memory had been foggy from the start, and so it had been easier to lie and feign ignorance. Ghostbur wasn’t entirely a lie, it was a way to cope if anything, but his ghost persona wasn’t truthful either. He remembered the sad things, but they were hard to focus on due to his trauma. He knew they had happened, but those memories weren’t as clear as his happy ones.

He pulled out his pickaxe as he neared the wall, by the podium for President Tubbo to speak out. Fuck… he never should have made that kid president. He mined the wall, the stone blocks falling away to reveal the _room_.

Some of his writings on the wall had survived. Including the line ‘A very big and not blown up He shrunk in on himself as he read it. There were a lot of regrets to be had now, and maybe he did… regret it. Maybe things would have been better if he had accepted the presidency when Tommy stepped down. Maybe he could have worked things out with Techno to prevent him from using the withers…

But who was he kidding? He was lost then, completely lost… and yet he still hesitated in the end.

It was fucked.

But that wasn’t why he was here… Because pressed up against the wall was… his body.

No one had buried him. Not Phil, not his brothers, not Tubbo, not even Fundy. They had just let him _rot_. No gravestone, not even a single mention anywhere, or a resting place. This room was his tomb and they had… Did anyone really care about him? _Really_? Because if they did… if they didn’t hate him like some of them tried to imply then… then _why was his body here_?!

Wilbur sniffed, tears building in his dead eyes. He needed to be buried. He couldn’t let himself rot completely here. His body wasn’t decaying very fast, it was largely still intact even though it had been a month. No doubt because of the conditions inside here. Not a living thing in sight to speed up the process, and the room was cold. Still, the process of decay was well underway, and he was sure his teeth would fall out soon enough.

He reached out, touching his skin gently. It didn’t feel very nice, after so long being dead. He just looked so… at peace like this. With the wound at his heart, and his red stained clothes. A tear slipped out, running down his cheek as he bowed his head. God, why did he do this to himself? He could have lived.

There was only one thing he could do now. He hooked his arms under himself and lifted, standing up. It was strange, to carry himself in his arms, his very dead self that looked so, so wrong in death. At least Phil had made it quick.

He trudged out of the room, jumping across the gap, barely keeping himself held in his arms, but he managed it. With a sigh, he made his way through L’Manberg, hoping… hoping no one would see. But it was night, most would be asleep by now, and besides, from what he had seen, few people hung around L’Manberg these days, always working on projects elsewhere.

Soon, the land was changing from bright grass to cold snow. He walked with a determined step, tears in his eyes, as he held himself close to his chest. He was dead, dead, dead… but he was… better off for it, everyone was. Alivebur had only caused pain… Ghostbur was a force for good!

Well, he could have been, if his true memories didn’t push to the surface despite him trying to forget. At the end of the day, he would always just be himself, a traumatised man that begged his father to kill him after blowing up his own nation.

Soon, he was passing through a village, then Techno’s cabin came into view. As he neared, he dropped to the ground, yelling out. He needed help, he couldn’t bury himself, he didn’t have the strength, he needed his older brother desperately.

“ _Techno…! Please, help me!”_ he shouted out, his voice strained with the effort.

The doors to Techno’s cabin burst open, and there he stood, eyes wide and frantic. “Ghostbur! Ghostbur, what’s wrong?!”

He came running down the steps, and as he reached the bottom one, he stopped still. Wilbur rocked back and forth, keeping his body very, very close to himself.

“Please… I need to be buried, I need to…” He glanced down at his dead face. “I don’t deserve to rot in that room.”

“They… left you to rot?”

Wilbur glanced up, watching as Techno neared slowly, crouching down by him. He shed a few tears, nodding. “I don’t even have a grave, Tech. They just… left me.”

“I thought they had buried you– I thought…” Techno’s face scrunched up, like he was in pain. “Phil didn’t either?”

“Clearly not…”

Techno reached out, his hands shaking as he pushed them into Wilbur’s hair, his dead body’s hair. “I knew they didn’t do a funeral, but to not even bury you?” He clenched his jaw. “That is _disgraceful_.”

“Please bury me, Tech. _Please_.”

“I’ll get my shovel…” Techno looked him in the eye, moving his hand to Wilbur’s ghostly cheek. “It’s okay, I’m going to bury you, don’t worry.”

Wilbur nodded quickly, closing his eyes in an attempt to bite back his tears.

“Do you want me to get Tommy? He’s passed out in the box.”

His eyes snapped open, and he stared at Techno like he’d grown another head. “Why is he in the box?”

Techno sighed, standing. “He’s scared. Of Dream.”

Wilbur glanced down at his dead body. Dream had aided in his own destruction… knowing it would have led to his death. “You can suggest it to him, but let him rest if he needs it.”

He assumed Techno had nodded, because in the next moment he had moved away, walking back towards the house, down into the chest room.

Finally, after so long, he was going to be buried, his body would finally be able to rest. _He_ would get to rest, knowing his dead body would be able to rot in peace. Every day it had haunted him that his body had been left in that room, surrounded by the anthem, by his actions. If he had it his way, he would have been buried under the Camarvan, the very thing that started _everything_. The van that had been his only home…

He yelled, his echoey voice bouncing all around the surrounding area. Why?! Why did it have to be this way?! Why did he do it all?! He looked down at himself once again, shaking his body gently, why… oh why… he could have had _so much_. And yet… he threw it all away, threw his _life_ away!

Techno came back outside, shovel in hand. His eyes were full of sorrow, his expression plastered with worry. “Tommy wanted to rest…” A pause. “Are you okay, Ghostbur?”

Wilbur shook his head. “I’m holding my dead body, no, I’m not.”

“Come on… follow me,” Techno said gently, softly.

Wilbur stood, cradling his body close to his chest. He followed Techno past the bee farm, to a little section of free space, where Techno began to dig down, two blocks, and a two block wide step down into it. It was a reasonably sized hole and would definitely fit his body inside.

“Do you want me to lay you to rest inside or…?” Techno asked, head slightly tilted, as if his eyes were trying to catch Wilbur’s – since he was staring down at the hole.

“I… You can do it… I don’t think it’s right for me to place _myself_ in the hole.”

Techno nodded and stepped towards him, holding out his arms. Carefully, Wilbur handed his body over, frowning at his dead face. He had been so alive once, so ready to live a full life, and yet he had cut it short, too scared of everyone hating him, too scared of what it meant to live after giving everything up…

Techno walked slowly over to the hole, stepping into it. Carefully, he put Wilbur’s body down, laying him flat. He placed his hands upon his stomach, interlocking, slotting something between them.

“What’s that?” Wilbur asked.

“Just a little bit of gold, in case you pass on to some place better.”

Wilbur shook his head. “There’s nowhere else, just darkness.”

Techno sighed and climbed out of the hole, closing it up with dirt. “Just in case, okay?”

Wilbur nodded. “Okay.”

Techno pulled out a couple of stone bricks, placing them at the head of Wilbur’s grave. In front of it, he put down a flowerpot, slotting a white tulip inside. “To symbolise forgiveness, respect, purity, and honour… Because you had honour, because you should forgive yourself, because you were pure in your intentions with L’Manberg – in the beginning – and because you should respect yourself for all you achieved, brother.”

Wilbur shifted, placing his hands behind his back. “Uh… I’m not so sure about that, Tech.”

“Trust me, Will, just… the white tulip suits.”

“Okay…”

He watched on as Techno placed a spruce sign on the stone brick, writing something out. Once he was done, he dyed it white and stepped aside. Wilbur read it, taking each word in carefully and… oh.

_Wilbur  
Beloved son,  
brother, father  
You will be missed_

“Is this okay?” Techno asked.

Wilbur sunk to his knees, the snow sinking into him. “It’s… it’s good, Techno. Thank you.” The tears that had been building in his eyes for hours now, all spilled out at once, and he fell sideways, curling up into a ball in the snow. All his despair at being dead _finally_ leaked from him, god, he could finally rest easy knowing he’d finally been respected in death.

He couldn’t stop crying either, couldn’t keep the tears back. It was more like wailing, really. A deep sorrow pouring from his eyes with every passing second. He tried to reach for his blue, but he couldn’t grasp it, and what was even the point? He didn’t need to whisper his sadness into it, he just needed to… He needed to…

Let himself be emotional, vulnerable. In life, he knew a good cry could make him feel numb, but now…

Now it wasn’t numb, just peaceful.

“G– Ghostbur?” Techno whispered. Oh, he was kneeling right next to him. When had that happened? “Hey…” He reached out, hands settling upon his shoulders. He lifted him up, hands moving to his cheeks to wipe the tears away. Wilbur was tempted to shake him off, but he didn’t. “What is it?”

Wilbur smiled slightly. “I– I have a _grave_.” He looked to it, reading the sign again. “A grave… Everyone hates me, but you let me have one.”

“Everyone doesn’t hate you.” Techno leant back, hands dropping to his lap. “You’re Ghostbur, they all love you.”

Wilbur choked on a sob, curling into himself as he knelt on his knees. Why did Techno have to lift him up? He would have preferred the ground… “That’s the point, Techno. That’s the point of Ghostbur.” He rubbed at his eyes, he was so _cold_ and _tired_. “If everyone believes I’m innocent and ignorant, and that I remember almost nothing bad about my past… then they won’t hate me. Every passing day, the fact that people prefer Ghostbur cuts me deeper.” He blinked harshly through his tears, looking to his grave once more. “I don’t have a grave because I was a bad man… even worse than Schlatt in everyone’s eyes.”

“Ghostbur… Wil… I… You’re not worse than Schlatt.”

A laugh bubbled up to the surface, depressive and sad, almost frantic in the way it came out. “You don’t know this me, or what I did, Tech. You weren’t there when I built a government, hell, you don’t even know my true motivations for blowing it up, I bet.”

“Wilbur… you’re…” Techno was staring at him like he’d didn’t recognise him. “You really remember?”

He stood, sparing a glance to the white tulip. “Yeah. The memory thing wasn’t a complete lie, it can be spotty, especially with short term memories.” He looked Techno in the eye, lips twitching. “I’m sorry…” He sighed. “I just want people to like me. No one can know of this, not even Tommy.”

“Wilbur–”

“No. No, don’t, you can’t.”

“But Phil would be relieved, and Tommy–”

“Hates me. He admitted it.” He clenched his jaw, lifting his chin. “I only need this, Techno. I only needed to know my body was at peace.”

Techno narrowed his eyes. “What is your plan?”

Wilbur smiled slightly. “I’m going to keep watch over L’Manberg for a bit. Tubbo is… losing his way. He needs to be taught the values again.”

“How are you going to do that without revealing yourself?”

He grinned now, tapping his temple. “I’ve read the history books, Techno. All the history books.”

Techno sighed and pushed himself up. “Just… don’t get caught. It would be worse for you.”

“Oh, I know. That’s why I maintain the persona of Ghostbur.” He smiled cheerfully. “Hi, Techno! What are you doing here?” he said innocently, slightly high pitched, tossing his head to one side.

“Stop that, never do that around me again.”

“Or what… you’ll kill me?” He grinned widely. “I’m _immortal_.”

Techno sighed. “Just… be safe, Wilbur. Can you promise me that?”

“I’ll be safe. Don’t worry about me.”

With a nod, Techno strode past him. He was probably angry. Besides, he had Tommy to look after, he had to protect him from Dream. Wilbur resisted clenching his fists. As time went on, it got harder to ignore what Dream was doing, but it was safer, for them all, if he acted like he knew nothing. It was…

He knelt back down in the snow, right in front of his grave, staring at it.

He smiled and closed his eyes. It had been so long since the raging fires inside him had calmed. His death was not sweet, but now… Now he could go about his days knowing his body wasn’t rotting inside _that room_. For some reason, that mattered to him.

He was at peace… for the first time in forever, maybe _ever_.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
